Watch Little Ashes For Free

People are voting emotionally.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The title of my review (if IMDb permits) is taken from a quote by Salvador Dali in 1969 regarding rumors of a Dali-Lorca affair. The full quote, epitomizing Dali's unbridled humor and arrogance is as follows:"He was homosexual, as everyone knows, and madly in love with me. He tried to screw me twice... I was extremely annoyed, because I wasn't homosexual, and I wasn't interested in giving in. Besides, it hurts. So nothing came of it. But I felt awfully flattered vis-à-vis the prestige. Deep down I felt that he was a great poet and that I owe him a tiny bit of the Divine Dali's a(..)hole."And with that, let's now talk about the movie.Although vividly denied by Dali, speculation of a romance between Dali & Lorca is the story of "Little Ashes". This is important to note up front, because if you're looking for a film that delves into the passion & inspiration behind Dali's art, Lorca's poetry and Buñuel's films, you'll be disappointed. This is mostly a straightforward love story with only a few substantial references to the 3 young men's creations (Lorca recites 2 poems, Dali displays 1 painting, and we get no more than 5 sec of Buñuel's film references, including the infamous slashed eyeball scene from "Un Chien Andalou").What makes this film separate from any other generic forbidden love story is the interesting portrayal of the characters. Whether historically accurate or not, their personalities jump out of the screen at you, particularly Dali played by Rob Pattinson a.k.a. the Twilight studmuffin. Pattinson's Dali is decidedly NOT a studmuffin but instead a very awkward, dorky kid which instantly reminded me of some of Johnny Depp's early roles ("Benny & Joon", "Edward Scissorhands", "Don Juan Demarco"). But fused with his dorkiness is an overbearing arrogance which comes to the surface more frequently as the film progresses."Little Ashes", however, is not about Dali and certainly not about Buñuel (who is really a minor character) but is mostly from Lorca's perspective. In that respect, it's fitting that the affair (which never happened, according to Dali) would be exaggerated and poetic. If you noticed in the Dali statement I quoted, he did admit that Lorca was "madly in love" with him, and that is what the film portrays in a very poetic and sentimental way.Although I was initially disappointed because I wanted to see more of Dali's art & creativity, I liked the forbidden, one-sided love story because it was well done and made good use of recognizable characters & events in history. Thus you could say I liked it in the end (uh, which is more than we can say for Dali. Heh heh).

Oh, wow, I just shudder to think of the multiple directions they could've gone with this, how rich and manifold the ways to do such a project. A film about Dali, Garcia Lorca, and Bunuel in one swoop. And I'm saying this as not a huge fan of these people. Rich in what we know and can imagine about a sort of popular life that we have shared into from our position as audience of one or the other, in the opportunities to annotate a multitudinous artistic life across so many different canvases, and to leverage all that as cinema about the dawn and twilight of the first truly modern era. The first time in history that we could really picture ourselves and, using ourselves, bring to life complex inner worlds.So we have Garcia Lorca: but no fiery duende that rises from the soles of the feet and stirs the heart into song like he wrote about. Beauty when it comes by, is rather plain and ordinary and treated with the faux-lushness of a period film. The man himself is the textbook version of spurned lover and idealist.We have Dali, him above all: but only ersatz madness and caprice, a hedonistic adonis caricature wholly attacked from the outside and using a fodder of replaceable mannerisms, with the mustache curved a little upwards as we know from pictures, and many rants about genius and breaking limits. But nothing about actually breaking them and none of the sublime intuition that melts time and is the revenge of abstract interior space upon the solid forms of history.And Bunuel, a little beside the other two: godless, fierce, radical, tormented, but a mere stubborn footnote in the exchange of visual platitudes about love and art - as exemplified by how vibrant feels among the rest of the film the short clip from Un Chien, of course the eponymous scene.So it's really sad that we have to settle for this, by itself a tame and harmless bout of youthful exuberance, a sort of safe exuberance that is nowhere as complex and impulsive as these people surely lived if we judge by their work, but really the most dismaying in context of these people and that work. The film could have been issued as part of any one of these peoples' vision and shaped accordingly: a poem on evanescent beauty, an absinthe dream, a vicious social statement, ideally conflating all three as their shared adventure across tumultuous worlds. The whole could transform as words and colors were added.So just a lot of ordinary panache is doubly insulting in this case. The pen-strokes all pontificate banalities. This is everything these people worked against all their lives, so to be so stereotypically embalmed in it?

A truly beautiful affecting movie, but, as others have said, not as involving as it could have been. About halfway through the movie, I turned on the subtitles, because I was having a hard time following what was happening because I couldn't always understand what the actors were saying (I'm not an expert on Spain or on surrealism). Once I had the subtitles, that helped a lot, but it also made me realize what they did in the film, which was regularly throw in a French or Spanish word or phrase without any translation. I suppose a really sharp person could get the meaning from the context, but I thought it created a strange barrier between the audience and the film. I liked the movie a lot and I thought Garcia Lorca's and Dali's relationship was shown in a very honest and heartfelt way. But the movie was unnecessarily confusing, and I would recommend that anyone who watches it, unless they're multilingual, they turn on the subtitles. Though, on the other hand, having the words in the frame will spoil some of the impact of the beautiful cinematography. Maybe it's just a film you have to watch more than once, or study up on Spain in the 1920s before you view it.

Little Ashes is a little-known film that was released last year. It stars Javier Beltran as Frederico Garcia Lorca and a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali.Starting in 1922, we are introduced to Dali as he arrives at a university in Madrid to study art. He is already convinced of his genius and meets Lorca, a writer and poet. The two form an instant friendship and Lorca finds himself attracted to Dali. During this time, homosexuality was frowned on and even illegal, so he has to keep it a secret. There are shots of Lorca in prayer, no doubt trying to purge the 'impure thoughts' of Dali from his mind. At times he even seems like he wants to avoid his friend. This it proved futile and finally, Lorca gives in to his growing attraction.As the movie progresses, so does their relationship…until Dali decides he's had enough of Spain and goes to France, leaving Lorca in the dust. Although he is attracted to him, Lorca's obsession is too much and he feels he must leave. The two meet again a few years later with Dali sporting a moustache. After a passionate kiss, Dali tells his friend that he is attracted to a woman and will stop at nothing to have her. He later watches Lorca and his girlfriend, Magdalena, have sex, the whole time Lorca's eyes never leave his. Dali returns to France and eight years later contacts his friend to start a business deal. Dali realizes that he hurt him by leaving and wants to make amends.Lorca, by this time, is over him and his politics have changed. He speaks out against Franco and unwillingly signs his death warrant. He meets with Dali, married to a woman named Gala, and Dali promises to start things up again, including a romantic relationship. Lorca is unconvinced, realizing that this is not the same Dali as was at the university and leaves. That is the last time the two friends see each other. Lorca is captured and executed shortly after and Dali cries over his loss. Only towards the end of his life does Dali admit the attraction between himself and Lorca; he kept the memories of his friend quiet for years.Beltran and Pattinson are fabulous in these roles. Both sport Spanish accents and portray their attraction to one another perfectly. Pattinson captures Dali's craziness and uniqueness, giving him life like we've never seen. Beltran makes Lorca real; you can feel his pain when Dali leaves him without a goodbye. I was crying for him at the end of the film. Marina Gatell is absolutely beautiful as love-struck Magdalena. She knows that Lorca and Dali are close friends, but doesn't realize the extent of their closeness until after she and Lorca have sex. I suspect she saw that he was watching Dali and realized her heart would never belong to him. The two remain friends after that and her unrequited love never faltered. She cries with friends upon hearing of Lorca's death on the radio.The scenery of 1920s Spain is beautiful. We get to see a part of it when Lorca and Dali go for a bike ride through the country. Several times you see the men walking through the square and the scenery is perfect. There's also a beach where they spend some time talking and getting to know each other. The men also swim in the moonlight and that is when their friendship is taken to a new level. Pattinson is convincing as a confused and tortured Dali who is unsure of taking things farther. He finally does but cannot consummate the relationship. Because of that, he begins to pull away from Lorca and this ultimately causes the downfall of their friendship.I wanted to see this movie because I am a huge fan of Robert Pattinson. I was sick of people saying "he can't act," so I rented his early work. I must say, I'm glad I did. Pattinson CAN most certainly act and he captures Dali to a T. Every good actor does his or her homework when playing a biographical character and this is no exception. Pattinson's eyes convey Dali's emotions during the sex scene, when Lorca comes to visit him and when he hears of Lorca's death. Nothing has to be spoken during those scenes; his eyes tell us perfectly what he is trying to say. And for those of us who find him quite attractive (like me), there is a shot of Pattinson naked standing in front of a mirror near the start of the film. I almost fell out of my seat when I saw that. Gorgeous! This movie won a GLADD award for Outstanding Film in Limited Release. It is breathtaking, refreshing, funny and sad. If you enjoy Robert Pattinson's work as much as I do, see this film before judging his acting ability. This proved to me that he is more than a tortured vampire; he is an actor. And that is what it's all about.